Heart of Fire
by Tehn
Summary: The new girl at school holds dangerous secrets. Will Warren be able to discover them in time to save Sky High and everyone there? Warrenxoc Rated T for action.
1. Ranna

Chapter One: Ranna

The late bell rang as Warren stepped into the school gymnasium, backpack casually swung across one shoulder. Students were congregating by the bleachers, reaping the rewards of being first block and the fact that Coach Boomer was generally ten minutes late.

Moving away from the direction of the crowd, he climbed the stairs to the top of the open bleachers. Here he could watch the tardy students enter the school in a sprint, the clouds, and Boomer's car as it vainly searched for a parking spot among all the inconspicuous cars modified by Mr. Medulla, the mad science teacher.

A dark figure in the corner of the bleachers opposite of where he was sitting caught his attention. Her black turtleneck spread halfway across her hands, and well below the tops of her pants. The dark jeans molded over her converse shoes, fitting snugly against her thin legs. Warren couldn't see her face. Her naturally black hair shielded it, blending into her shirt.

Her pencil bobbed as it stroked across her notebook; whether she was drawing or writing he couldn't tell. Her large pink eraser came out constantly, despite the fact that her marks were made with a strong, confident hand.

The door burst open, Boomer walking in with a blustering expression. His face was red from the chill of the outside and from his later-than-usual tardiness. His clipboard was already in hand, the roster posted cleanly on it. Boomer stood before the quieting students, who recognized the signs of his no-nonsense mood.

Without taking time to call out each individual name, Boomer roughly scratched off the attendance of the nervously shifting class. He paused at the last name.

"Alright, class," Boomer announced loudly. "It appears we have a new student." He stumbled over the unfamiliar name. "Ranna…..Rannaseem……..Ra-"

"Rannaseemashur'tugal," the girl in the corner, standing up with her messenger back strap biting into her shoulder. "I am called Ranna." Her voice was emotionless, almost monotone.

Ranna slowly began her descent down, her shoes barely making a sound with each step, no different from the pause between them.

"You'll want to place me according to my powers. I will be fighting against Warren Peace to test my skill. I have already bought my uniform, so you don't have to worry about that." She walked towards the girl's locker room.

"Telepathy," Boomer muttered, penciling that in beside her name. "Let's see what else this girl's got. Warren," he shouted," suit up! You're going to be fighting an interesting match."

* * *

A/N: Ranna's name seems daunting, but it's actually really easy to pronounce. Ranna-seema-shur'tugal. For all of you Eragon people (rock on!), I am aware that shur'tugal means dragon rider, or something to that effect. Ranna was originally meant to be an Eragon fanfic character, but she became a Sky High one instead. This is NOT a Eragon/Sky High crossover. I'll try to make longer chappies in the future. I was just excited to post my first fic. Yay me!


	2. Battle

Chapter Two: Battle

She was sitting on across from where he was standing, wrists placed on her knees as she meditated. It was unnerving, really, how still she was. In the end, it would not matter, though. He was the best, and he would prove it again in this match. Warren rubbed his wrists again; without his wrists weighed down with what he had put on that day, they felt empty and vulnerable. Now he could see her face, or at least the half that was not covered by her hair. Looking at her, he could not see the left side of her face, only black with a broad, vibrant red streak. The red was so strange, as if she had taken the essence of fire and held it in that streak.

Boomer climbed up to his tall seat, ready to watch the scene from a bird's eye view. "And……….begin!"

Warren shook his arms out, loosening his muscles, his hair fraying to the sides of his face, out from behind his ears. Ranna was suddenly standing, the fluid motion that had preceded that state flawless, yet quick. They stared at each other, both measuring the aptitude of their opponent. Her opened eyes were translucent orange, the color of molten lava.

Warren charged, letting out a wild roar, flames rippling down his arms as he ran. Ranna stood still, a frozen statue. Warren almost slowed for fear of running into her, but at the last moment, found himself in the air, then down on the wooden floor on the other side of the room.

Whips still extended down Ranna's arms, fire that began at her elbows and flickered well beyond her hands. Warren grabbed onto the light pole near him, and pulled himself to a standing position. A squeal of metal cut through the room. Warren looked over to see the pole wound around his wrist. He pulled back, but his arm was stuck fast. Warren looked back at Ranna. She had cocked her head slightly towards the pole.

On his chair, Boomer nodded satisfactorily. "Pyro, telekinetic…..This girl's got it all."

The whips extended even longer to wrap around Warren's ankles, pulling him out. His arm was stretched at a painful angle; he couldn't hold back a short yell. Ranna nodded and the pole straightened, dropping Warren against the floor before being held upside down. She spun him around the room three times, then let go, letting his speed slam him into the plastic siding, knocking the wind out of him. He clumped to the floor, then lay still, gasping for air.

"It's over!" Boomer shouted after a moment, impressed. "Peace, new girl, hit the showers!"

Warren struggled to stand, then brushed arrogantly past Ranna to the boy's locker room, leaving the surprised whispers behind him. This was his first loss, and he would make sure it was his last.

* * *

A/N: Kapow!!! Our next exciting chapter includes everyone's favorite class: lunch!

If Ranna ever seems too MarySue, please warn me and I will make the proper changes. She is quite the opposite of a Marysue. Thanks to JohnnyIsAGirl for the heads up! And a heartfelt thanks to SilverMoon Gypsy for the review and alert!


	3. Lunch

Disclaimer: Sorry, I forgot to do this, but I think you all know that I don't own Sky High, its characters, or anything else. I only own Ranna. I think I might own one of the future characters, but I'm not sure. A friend of mine and I started this story together long ago, I'm just making it into an actual story. She's gracious enough to let me use her characters to better this story. Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter Three: Lunch 

Warren's table was crowded with Will's group: Will, Layla, Magenta, Zach, and Ethan. He tuned out their senseless, annoying chatter while he surveyed the room. Ranna was nowhere to be found.

"Hey, dude, what are you staring at?" Ethan was in his face asking the question.

"What's it to you?" Warren muttered before he pushed away from the table, grabbing his backpack as he left. He smiled as he heard the weight of the books in his backpack smack Ethan in the face. It wasn't planned, but it definitely was a perk to his day.

The sun was half-hidden by clouds outside, the wind blowing the leaves of the grown trees to sift even more out. These trees had been planted in the beginning of the year, and with Medulla's help, they had just reached maturity, and would stay that way until someone decided the cut it down.

Warren plopped down onto the half wall by the stairs, pulling his math textbook out of his backpack. He thought that his AP Stat class would be a piece of cake. He blew out his breath in frustration.

"Problem Fourteen," he muttered to himself. "Survey questions. Examine each of the following questions for possible bias. If you think the question is biased, indicate how and propose a better question. "

He bit on the end of his pen as he read through the different examples before catching sight of black against the brown bark of the tree, run around with swirls of reds and oranges, the colors of autumn leaves.

Standing up slowly, quietly, Warren made his way to the tree, careful to not step on the crisp leaves still left on the grass. Ranna sat with her back against the tree, sitting the same way she had before their match, a soft smile playing mildly on her lips, her eyes closed as she concentrated on moving the leaves in an intricate dance.

Too late, Warren noticed a foreign probe touch his mind. Ranna's eyes shot open, the leaves falling as her snarl reappeared. Briskly, she stood up and grabbed her bag; he was amazed again at the fluidity of her movements, as if she were molded from water rather than a solid person.

Warren grabbed her arm as she pushed by. She whipped her head around, trying to jerk her arm away. He held fast, undaunted by her growing fury.

"What is _with_ you?" He narrowed his eyes. "You have all this power and you play with leaves and sit by yourself. You _should_ be trying to learn how to help save the world like the rest of us."  
"So learning the probability of how easy it will be for you to fail in your quest is somehow supposed to help you learn how to finish it? I don't think so. You're the one with the problem, assuming you know everyone's purpose. Perhaps my fate is supposed to be different from yours." Her monotonous tone was replaced with her raw anger.

"I still don't get what your deal is. You would think that after eleven years of formal education you would get some people skills. What I want to know is why you obviously don't have any."

Ranna glared menacingly. Warren glared back, refusing to back down.

"You don't really want to know why I'm so antisocial," Ranna sighed. "You know the feeling yourself. You just want to know how I got so many powers. Fine. My-"

The school bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Ranna snapped her hand away and walked away towards the school, leaves clearing from her path in an invisible cocoon of wind. Warren groaned. He had waited too long to confront her, and lost his chance to figure out what made her stronger than him.

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry it took so long to update! First my jump drive accidentally got washed (but thankfully didn't die) and then I just had no time. School will do that to you. Blergh! Next week is finals week, so I really hope I can write a chappie, but it's not the most likeliest thing. I don't even know if I spelled that right. This is probably not the best chappie, but I'm not really good at transitions. Blergh again. By the way, the question that Warren reads is actually a problem from my AP Prob/Stat book. Cool, isn't it?


	4. Note

Chapter Four: Note 

Warren dropped his backpack next to his desk, groaning as he fell into his seat. This day was only halfway over and he was utterly exhausted. Gah! It was only Tuesday! Whispered conversations heightened in pitch suddenly. Warren looked over to see Ranna walk in, pick a seat in the back, and start scribbling in her notebook.

Of course she would be here. She had been in his last three classes before lunch. Why wouldn't she be here now? She certainly was smart enough to be in all AP classes as he was. He sighed. She would be in his Hero classes tomorrow as well. The days at Sky High split every other day into two categories: Education and Hero Education.

The AP Literature teacher (Warren wondered why they couldn't just call it AP English) walked up to the whiteboard, scribbling more notes on the Prose Analysis Process for the piece they were analyzing.

"Circle up," he said cheerfully. The room rang with the screeches of the moving metal desks as they formed a large somewhat-circular shape to include everyone. Warren saw Ranna across from him, slightly detached from the two desks on either side of her. The students who sat in those desks were too happy to oblige.

"We left off yesterday with _Indian Education_. Now, Sherman Alexie broke this essay up into what?" He looked around eagerly for an answer. The students uncomfortably shuffled through notes, or stared at various points in the room so as not to meet his eyes.

"Vignettes," Ranna said after a long period of silence. The teacher's eyes lit up.

"Very good!" He realized that he had never seen Ranna before. "I'm sorry, I'm Mr. Maw. It's nice to have you in our class."

After that first question, the ice was broken, and the class energetically cooperated with Mr. Maw to thoroughly break apart the essay.

"Two minutes left. Everybody please put your chairs back where they go."

The screeches and scuffles ensued, then stopped just before the bell rang. Students rushed to stuff their notebooks and Bedford Reader textbooks back into their backpacks before rushing off.

A piece of paper fluttered onto Warren's desk. He looked up to find the source, and saw Ranna glance over her shoulder as she walked out the door. He opened the folded note.

_Meet me after school. _

Warren smirked. He would get his answers after all.

* * *

Warren headed to the library for his free period. He had by far surpassed the amount of credits with all of his AP classes, and so he took this opportunity for a brain rest eagerly.

Only a few of the computers were taken. He sat at one of the desktops near the back corner; he detested feeling like the librarians were look over his shoulder, even though he knew perfectly well that they weren't.

Warren accessed his email account. Sure enough, his mother was on as well. He set up the chat box.

**wp:** **staying schl 2nite.**

He waited for the reply. Soon his chat box beeped, indicating a response.

**Mom: Are you sure? I'm making your favorite tonight.**

Warren scoffed. She said that every night, just to make sure he didn't feel "ignored" by the "traumatizing experience" – his father's quadruple life sentence.

**wp: im sure bye**

He logged off, then turned to the bookshelves to grab a dusty book. The reading chairs were cushioned, much more comfortable to the plastic computer seats. He slumped down and waited for the last period to end.

* * *

A/N: Wo zhu ni shengdan kuai le! (I wish you a Merry Christmas!) Here's my present to you! Forgive me if I'm making my characters unrealistic by putting them in AP classes, but these are classes I am in (other than Hero classes, unfortunately) and so I really don't know what non-AP classes are doing. By the way, PLEASE review! If you have ways to help make Ranna un-Mary Sueish, please help add that in. I must warn you, the reason she is the way that she is is because I made her up in my early teens and I'm just now formally writing her story. That's why she's very unrefined. Okay, now that we got that taken care of, REVIEW! There will be eCheese! If I haven't eaten it all.................


	5. Responsibility

Chapter Five: Responsibility

The last bell rang, and Warren let a rush of air out in relief. To his dismay, he had picked out the book _Romeo and Juliet_. He understood that it was a timeless classic of love and fate, but this story was pathetic, especially since Romeo kept running after different girls, and all Juliet needed was a day out – a tomb didn't count, he added to himself with a chuckle.

With a last miniscule wave at the librarians, who were patient enough to endure his constant requests for books, Warren left the library. The halls were cluttered with half of the student body running to their respective buses, and the other half sifting through to the cafeteria. Warren followed the latter crowd.

The cafeteria was the night haven for those students who didn't have anywhere else to go. Some of them were disowned by their parents once they had grown into their powers, others simply lived too far away to make a daily trip back home, and a handful, like him, just stayed to fit some extra power practice in. The school had hired some of the day staff on as night staff, and provided a meal and a place to stay for the night.

Warren grabbed a tray and took his place in the line that was forming for dinner; it was a perfect act to disguise the fact that he was earnestly looking for Ranna. She wasn't there. He grumbled to himself as he took his turn through the line.

"Warren, dear."

He turned back to see Carla, one of the servers, motioning him back, a full tray in her hand. She was shorter than him, her chocolate skin clad in one of the dark blue uniforms of Sky High kitchen crew. Her black hair was kept up in a plastic, misty net. She and Warren had formed something akin to friendship during his many stays here.

"There's a girl outside. I'm not sure that she knows that she can get a meal and something to sleep on. Would you mind taking this to her?" Carla smiled, and then tossed an extra cookie onto his tray when he reached for Ranna's . "Tell her that she can come in for seconds, if she wants. She looks like she needs some meat on her bones." Carla turned to the next student in line.

Warren pushed the door that led outside open by leaning on it. The wind came at him in a rush, forcing his breath back into his throat. He rolled his eyes as he saw that it was Ranna with the wind swirling around her again, still sitting in that meditative pose with her back to him.

"Hey!" he called out above the torrential streams of wind. "Hey! Stop that! I'm carrying your supper!" The wind didn't stop. Snarling in his throat, Warren put one of the trays down. With a flick of his wrist, he sent a spitball of flame into the whirl of wind. The fire spread down, leaping high with the sudden flare of current. Warren smirked. That sure caught her attention.

The wind died, bringing the fire down with it. She stood up, turning her head around to face him, obviously unamused. "Took you long enough," she murmured.

"Sorry," he retorted sarcastically, "I thought you might like something to eat." He handed her the tray. She took it, sat the tray on the ground, and then sat where she had already made an imprint on the grass. Warren walked back to the tray he had dropped, and kicked it gently over in front of Ranna's. He sat down with a huff.

"What's up with all that meditating mumbo jumbo anyway?" Warren grumbled, biting into a sparsely buttered roll.

"It keeps me focused. If I didn't meditate, then I would not have room for my own thoughts." She sniffed at the chocolate-chip cookie.

"Haven't you ever had one of those before?" Warren asked disbelievingly. Ranna shook her head.

"Sheltered, much? Sheesh……Anyway, back to the note. What's the story behind the all-powerful Ranna?"

Ranna scoffed. "I was born to two scientists from some secret agency in the government. Don't ask me what agency in which government, because I don't know. All I know is that they were in a department that was in charge in testing certain samples of whatever substance the government wanted them to study. At the time I was being awaited, they had been studying a red rock-like material. When I was born, something went wrong, but nobody knew until I was about four. Then my heart started messing up. My parents had me tested, but nobody knew what was wrong with me. After a while my parents realized that my symptoms could be remedied by a certain material they were working with, and so they put a fragment next to my heart. I got better. The stone had side effects, though: the red material gave me a birthmark-like streak in my hair, and my fire powers. It also enhanced my mind powers so that I had telepathy as well as telekinesis, which incidentally runs on my father's side of the family."

Warren whistled. "Wow. What a story."  
Ranna looked at him threateningly. "You don't believe me?"

"No, no, I do believe you. There's no reason not to. It's just….wow. So, are your parents still in that government thing? You talk about them in past tense."

Ranna looked back down at the grass. "No. They died when I was seven."

"What happened?"

"We were at the mall," Ranna tipped one side of her mouth in a wry half-smile. "Mom and Dad hadn't had a day off since…well, I couldn't remember the last time they had had one. Mom wanted to take me to get a new dress. I just excited to spend a whole day with her and Dad." Ranna's smile disappeared. "Out of the blue, the mall started exploding. We ran out, but not before the entire building detonated. By then, Mom and I were in the parking lot. Dad was trying to fend off the person responsible with his telekinesis. I knew he was gone instantly, but when I woke up, Mom's body was strewn over me. I thought she was alive, but she wouldn't move, wouldn't talk, wasn't warm. I figured it out soon enough. The ambulance started to take me to the hospital, but the government sent their own nurse instead. I knew too much to stay in public places. Another scientist from a neighboring department took me in. He's trained me to stay calm and impassive, so my powers don't get out of control."

"So this explains the 'I-really-am-human-even-though-I-act-like-a-robot' kind of thing? It makes sense, I guess," Warren shrugged. "Do you know who blew up that mall?"

"His name was Baron Battle."  
Warren stiffened suddenly. His father was responsible for the death of her family.

This could put a damper on their relationship.

* * *

A/N: This chapter was supposed to come a lot later, when another character comes in, but I decided that it would work here and explain why Ranna is uber-powerful. I'm going to try to tone her ultimate cosmic power (without the itty bitty living space) down a bit. Haha. Sorry, Aladdin just came to mind there. ANYWAY! eCheese to my faithful reviewers! Get ready for some humor to come in........soonish, I think.


	6. Stars

Chapter Six: Stars 

With the sunset came the chill of night. Warren sent flares of fire down his arms to keep warm from the rising wind.

"Let's go inside," he advised. "It's getting cold out here."

"I'm not going in," Ranna said adamantly.

Warren frowned. "Carla will kill me if I let you freeze out here. We're going in."

"No."

Warren groaned in frustration. "Why not?"

Ranna looked at him like he was brainless. "Why do you think I get away from the happy flock of students the first chance I get?"

"I don't know," Warren huffed angrily, catching her sarcasm," I thought you were just little miss anti-social! "

"No. It's because I get tired of hearing every thought raging in my head. Nights are worse, with all the nightmares. You know, for a guy in advanced classes, you might have figured that out earlier."

"Sorry, they must have sucked out all of my brain cells." Warren paced, tired of sitting.

The sun sank lower in the sky until it wasn't there anymore. Warren and Ranna were left in the light of the moon, the cold light not offering any warmth. The stars glittered coldly.

Warren shivered. "You can stay out here, but I'm at least going in for some blankets."

Ranna simply sat there, staring at the stars. Warren shook his head.

Walking through the door, a rush of heat rushed across him. Students were headed to the well-hidden closets where blankets and pillows were stored. The night staff were conducting the procedure with orderly patience, educating the students new to this system on what to do and how to do it.

Carla wasn't hard to find, her robust figure easily standing out among the students. She spotted Warren and waved him over energetically.

"Dear, if you're here, where's that charming girl I told you about?" Carla inquired. Charming? Obviously Carla hadn't had much time around Ranna.

"She's outside. I came to get some blankets. It's pretty cold." Warren kept his sentences choppy. It was obviously getting late and he was starting to feel the day catching up with him.

Carla handed him two sets of sleeping supplies. "Make sure she keeps warm. Just because she's a flamer doesn't mean that she can keep herself warm when she's asleep."

Warren nodded, balancing what Carla had given him on his arms. The bite of cold hit him harder than the warm room as he walked outside. He grumbled to himself as he returned to the nook where he had left Ranna.

Slumped over, she was eerily still. Warren dropped the materials and went over to her. Kneeling, he rolled her over onto his lap, sighing in relief and frustration when he saw that she was just sleeping. She really needed to learn how to act as a normal person, and that meant learning how to look asleep instead of dead.

Either way, he wasn't going to waste this quite convenient opportunity to have at least one thing go his way today.

A pitter-pattering, then a torrent of rain dropped as Warren eased Ranna into his arms. Somehow, she seemed fragile when she was asleep. Leaving the blankets and pillows behind, he trotted to the door. Carla was holding it open.

"No offense, Carla, but your "Knowing" thing kinda freaks me out sometimes." That was Carla's power, Knowing.

"Imagine if I could tell the future," she whispered conspiratorially, easily slipping into teasing Warren. Her ability just gave her impressions of what might happen as it related to what she should do. Most of the time, she had confided to Warren, she didn't even know why she was supposed to do it. She just did, and it was always for the better.

"Where is the stuff I gave you?" Carla demanded, glancing outside to the falling rain.

"I figured that you would want _her_ in more than the blankets," Warren retorted, laying Ranna on the floor somewhat remote from the rest of the sleeping students. "I'll go get them," he grumbled.

Carla nodded, smiling almost smugly. "Good boy."

Warren quickly ran out into the bitterly cold rain, then hurriedly ran back. Carla was opening one of the shades by Ranna.

"Why….?" Warren began, quite confused. The shades were kept down to darken the cafeteria, for those students who couldn't sleep with anything less than absolute darkness.

"She likes to look at the stars," Carla replied. "It scares her when she can't wake up to see the sky."

"Carla, it's raining. It doesn't matter what she _likes_ to see, it's not going to happen."

"She still needs to see outside," Carla replied. "Trust me, I know."

* * *

A/N: Alrighty, sorry it took so long. I have these ideas, and then I have to sort them out, and then I think of new ones, and then blahblahblah..... This sounded way better in my head. My apologies. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!!! I BEG OF THEE! It's a little discouraging (sorta) when I get alot of good alerts and faves and such, but no reviews. Don't care what you say, as long as you don't swear. Much thanks!


	7. Avoid

Chapter Seven: Avoid

The lunch line was growing longer. Warren smirked slightly, relishing happily the fact that he could intimidate to the front of the line and already be seated with his lunch by the time the rest of the school arrived for their noon meal.

Will and his group soon showed up. The line parted for them, ushering them to the front of the line, not from intimidation, but from awe. Will Stronghold, the son of the legendary son of The Commander and Jetstream, had to do nothing more then glance at something and it was given to him or moved out of his way. This made Warren's face twist in disgust, yet he was still the hero's friend. Odd how things worked out that way.

Will and his posse slowly wound their way to Warren's table, Will's head close to Layla's as she hissed something into his ear. Will, rolling his eyes, finally gave in to whatever Layla was badgering him about. Warren's snarl hinted up into a smile. Layla insisted on very few things, but when she did, she was as stubborn as the weeds that she pulled from her abundant garden.

Will broke off from the group, who sat down at the table. Layla turned around in her seat to watch Will. Warren stretched his neck to look from over Layla's shoulder. Will walked up to a floor-sitting figure, an eraser bobbing quickly above the notebook. Looking down, he said something lost to the buzz of the cafeteria. The eraser kept bobbing. A little perturbed, Will tried again to talk the person. With an annoyed look on his face, he finally turned away and went to the table.

"See, I told you," Will pointed out, slumping down in the seat. "She totally ignores everyone. I don't get what her deal is."

"Who was it?" Warren asked, casually sticking another French fry in his mouth.

"That new girl. Ranna, or whatever her name is."

As if on cue, Ranna stood up, sending a sharp look over to Warren's table before hefting her bag onto her shoulder and pushing through the cafeteria doors. Without thinking, Warren stood up, pushing his tray over to Stronghold as he slung his backpack across his shoulders.

Slipping through the doors of the lunchroom, Warren caught a glance of Ranna's hair as she turned a corner. Stealthily, he tread behind her, following her into the library.

_GO AWAY_

Warren winced as the warning ripped through his head. He looked around, looking for what sent the harsh message. Ranna sat at a table in the back of the library, her notebook out, pencil moving, pausing only as she sent a dark glare at him. Ignoring her mental shout, he made a beeline in her direction. Her scowl deepened.

"Good afternoon to you, too," he muttered as he slumped into a seat.

"What do you want?"

"Maybe an explanation? You confide your life story to me, and then you don't give me a second glance? Come on, that's lame. What are you trying to pull?"  
"I'm not trying to _pull_ anything. I am doing what is called _avoiding_. "

"Who are you trying to avoid?"

"You. Them. Anyone who would try to get close to me. I admit, I let myself have a 'normal' day yesterday, almost made a friend," her lips curled in disgust," but I've had my fun. It's time to finish my task, and to stay secluded. That's what he taught me to do. It's worked out just fine so far."

Ranna stood up and left out the door leading into the outside courtyard. Warren sat there for a minute, confused, then walked slowly back towards the cafeteria.

* * *

A/N: I am incredibly SORRY for taking so long!! First killer homework (darn AP classes), then I moved, then I had to actually figure out what the flip I wanted to do in this chapter. If you're confused, don't worry, all will be explained in due time..........mwahahaha..........This chapter was written in a long span of time, so if it's funky, that's why. Please don't give up on it yet. FYI: Chapters in the future will start to switch to Ranna's point of view. Warren's POV right now was mainly to set up the mysterious, dangerous character of Ranna. Never fear, I will still have Warren POV chapters, just not as many. Please enjoy, PLEASE REVIEW, and stay tuned for upcoming chapters!!


	8. Trea

Chapter 8: Trea

Warren glanced over at Ranna's back as she walked out of the classroom. He was still sitting in his seat, slowly placing his pencil in the rings of his binder. For three months, she had been avoiding everyone, especially him. Normally he wouldn't care, but then again, normally girls didn't share their life story with him.

"Hey, Warren, we're going to be waiting in a long line if we don't hurry up," Will reminded him.

"Be right there," he muttered. Will walked out of the classroom slowly, waiting for Warren to catch up. He sat in his seat. He finally sighed, slipping his backpack onto his shoulder, and stepping into the empty hall. A flash of orange and green hit him, knocking them both to the floor.

"Ow!" A girlish squeal echoed through the hallway. Warren grumbled and looked up. A girl, slender, on her bottom with her legs splayed out under her, rubbing her head. Orange hair, a streak . . . of green? Warren did a double-take. Green? What kind of person streaked their hair _green_? Especially someone with orange hair?

"Oh, I am so sorry! I didn't mean to knock into you; I just got lost and finally saw the sign for the lunchroom and wanted to hurry and get something to eat before it was over-"

The lunchroom door slammed, footsteps ringing loudly towards Warren. Ranna. She snatched a glance at Warren and Trea, but her stride did not pause as she pressed forward to the library.

"Who's she?" the orange-haired girl asked.

"Ranna. Don't bother trying to be her friend. She's not that type." Warren warned the girl. Her aura rang of perky friendliness, something he was sure Ranna would not appreciate.

"Nonsense. Everyone is a friend type. Someone just has to be brave enough to be pesky. I'm Treasa, by the way. Not Teresa, Treasa. Trea for short. You know, like that thing in the front of the school, the big one with lots of shade-"

Warren got up and briskly turned away. One thing he and Ranna had in common was their blatant dislike for perkiness.

"Oh..um…kay, bye!" Trea shouted after him.

***

Warren walked slowly to his classroom. Hero Class was an accumulation of How to Save the Citizen, How to Name Your Hero Support, and How to Accept the Thanks of Civilians, among other monotonous topics. Ranna was in her back corner, gazing intensely out of the window, turning her head away from . . . Trea? This was the last place he expected to see her. Warren hid his surprise and took his seat in the corner opposite Ranna's. Even from across the room Warren could hear Trea's one-sided conversation.

_Stop wasting your time_, Warren thought sadly to himself. _Some people just aren't the 'friend' type_.

* * *

A/N: SO SORRY that it took so long to update! I've been moving around and mulling millions of ideas around in my head. But now chapters are going to have an element of humor - Trea is the comic relief. And now chapters will be from Ranna's point of view. Next up: Dorms!! Confused? You won't be. ^_^ Please review, Merry Christmas, etc., etc. Will update soon!


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